Objects Database

Charlet Moser Ice Axe

Accession Number

624.2008.1

Object Name

Charlet Moser Ice Axe

Created

08/12/2008

Creator

Hermione Cooper

Accession Date

08/12/2008

Brief Description

'Charlet Moser' ice axe - shortened wooden shaft with a home made spike on ferrule with four grooves.Adze and serrated pick.

Materials

wood, metal

Dimensions

Shaft & ferrule 48.5(l) x 10(cir)cms. Head 24(l) cms. Adze 6(w)cms.

Number Of Objects

1

Inscription Description

on one side of head "3 CHARLET MOSER"

Colour

brown

Maker

Charlet Moser

Object Production Place

France

Provenance

Way back in the mists of time, the Charlet family were blacksmiths in the little town of Chamonix in France in the shadow of Mont Blanc.
When the Golden Age of mountaineering arrived in the 1860’s they were quick to adapt their skills in the manufacturing of agricultural tools to that of making ice axes, catering for the ever growing market of visiting alpinists.
We are not sure of the exact dates but do know that the family firm was passed from father to son for several generations and that they were continuously in competition with another Chamonix ice axe maker, Simond.
Charlet combined forces with yet another family, the Mosers, to create Charlet-Moser possibly around 1950 or maybe a little earlier.
This would be around the time the axe we have here in the collection would have been made. Not sure what the No. 3 indicates beside the Charlet-Moser logo. Perhaps a date, style, design mark, batch number or shaft length.
We have a very fine example of an early Charlet elsewhere in the collection along with other Charlet - Moser items.
Charlet- Moser were taken over by Petzl in 2000 to become Petzl Charlet though by 2018 the Charlet bit seems to have disappeared and Charlet the ice axe maker is consigned to the history books.

Acquisition Date

08/12/2008

Condition Check Date

28/04/2009

Rules

Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007

Modified

28/04/2009

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